UN rights chief: Warring parties use Syrians as "cannon fodder"

The various actors in the Syrian conflict are showing less and less regard for civilian lives, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein says, reacting to advances by government troops on Aleppo and Russian air support.

"Women and children, the elderly, the wounded and sick, the people with disabilities are being used as bargaining chips and cannon fodder day after day, week after week, month after month," the UN high commissioner for human rights says.

The attacks on rebel-held Aleppo have forced some 51,000 civilians to flee, while putting 300,000 at risk of becoming trapped in a siege, Zeid says, adding that dozens of civilians have been killed and at least three clinics have been destroyed amid the fighting in the area.

"It is unconscionable that the various parties cannot even manage to sit around the table, when, because of their actions, more than a quarter of a million people have died, and the rest of the population is suffering to such a degree," Zeid adds, calling for the resumption of peace talks in Geneva.

Beirut (dpa) - Syrian government forces and their allies advanced deeper into the shrinking rebel-held enclave in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday, seizing the Old City, while demanding the armed opposition groups leave the area.